城市中的田園

記得大學(xué)讀書期間，同濟(jì)大學(xué)校園的宣傳欄中貼出一張公告，點(diǎn)名通報(bào)未在規(guī)定時(shí)間內(nèi)宰殺家中飼養(yǎng)的家禽的一些教師，其中包括陳從周先生。同學(xué)們都笑著猜測，陳先生養(yǎng)雞應(yīng)該是用于觀察畫畫，或是留著待貝聿銘先生來訪時(shí)能更好地設(shè)家宴招待。

20世紀(jì)80年代以前，飼養(yǎng)家禽是中國城市的普遍現(xiàn)象，與鄉(xiāng)村類似，城市居民每天清晨聽到的第一個(gè)聲音往往是公雞的啼鳴。那時(shí)，許多城市建筑密度不高，城中有大片田野。我生長的城市蘭州是一個(gè)沿著黃河分布的線形城市，在城區(qū)各個(gè)組團(tuán)之間是農(nóng)田、菜地和果林，左鄰右舍都飼養(yǎng)家禽，住平房或是住宅樓一層的居民會在院子里種植蔬菜、玉米或是葡萄，以此來彌補(bǔ)食物的不足、增加營養(yǎng)供給，整個(gè)城市就像一個(gè)大村莊。

要理解當(dāng)時(shí)的城市并不難，費(fèi)孝通在《中國士紳》中曾描述20世紀(jì)40年代的中國城市：“在城內(nèi)通常有一些可以種植的土地，即使是在北京和南京這樣的大城市，也有它的農(nóng)業(yè)區(qū)。這些田地被圍在城里，可以供給居民必要的蔬菜和其他不易儲藏的農(nóng)產(chǎn)品。依照傳統(tǒng)的觀點(diǎn)，理想的‘城’是一個(gè)能自給自足的堡壘?！背鞘猩钚枰r(nóng)產(chǎn)品不間斷地供應(yīng)，在存貯和運(yùn)輸技術(shù)極不發(fā)達(dá)的情況下，許多農(nóng)產(chǎn)品都需要在城市周邊甚至內(nèi)部就近生產(chǎn)。再加上政策措施失當(dāng)和農(nóng)業(yè)產(chǎn)量低下，以致城市食品供給極為匱乏，無法滿足城市居民日常的食品需求。因此，城市中的土地被人們自發(fā)地利用起來種植蔬菜作物或者飼養(yǎng)家禽，用以補(bǔ)充食物的不足、改善生活條件。那時(shí)城市的某些區(qū)域，尤其是居民區(qū)，或多或少地都像一個(gè)大村莊，都具有濃厚的鄉(xiāng)村氣息。

今天，中國城市的農(nóng)產(chǎn)品供給極其豐富，產(chǎn)品源自全國各地甚至全世界，城市附近的農(nóng)業(yè)用地在生產(chǎn)上的意義不再重要。隨著快速的城市化進(jìn)程，這些土地迅速轉(zhuǎn)變成新的城市區(qū)域。原來城市中帶有院子的平房和低層住宅被密密麻麻的高層建筑所取代，各種整齊漂亮的公園綠地填滿了建筑之間的空隙。城市中的土地失去了生產(chǎn)食物的必要，城市也隨之失去了以往的田園氣息。如今城市中的孩子沒有在清晨被公雞啼叫喚醒的經(jīng)歷，也沒見過生長在土地上的莊稼和蔬菜。中國的城市已遠(yuǎn)離田園和農(nóng)村，30年前田園化的城市景觀僅僅存在于一些文學(xué)作品、影像記錄和曾經(jīng)在那個(gè)年代生活的人的記憶之中。

與此相對照的，一些最早實(shí)現(xiàn)工業(yè)化的發(fā)達(dá)國家反而保留了更多更完整的田園風(fēng)景，不僅整個(gè)國土一派田園風(fēng)光，城市中也更加富有鄉(xiāng)野氣息。20世紀(jì)90年代，當(dāng)我初次邁出國門，如饑似渴地考察學(xué)習(xí)歐洲現(xiàn)代化的城市與景觀時(shí)，驚訝地發(fā)現(xiàn)歐洲許多中小城市都充滿了田園氣息，綠地中的花草樹木多是樸野自然的鄉(xiāng)土種類，許多人家的院子被裝點(diǎn)得像個(gè)農(nóng)舍，城市中不少公共空間也被設(shè)計(jì)得像一片鄉(xiāng)村野地。

其實(shí)，歐洲城市在工業(yè)化和城市化進(jìn)程中也經(jīng)歷過迅速改變的過程。針對工業(yè)增長和人口膨脹帶來的城市環(huán)境惡化和社會結(jié)構(gòu)失調(diào)問題，很多學(xué)者提出過改善生存環(huán)境的思想策略。19世紀(jì)中葉，德國醫(yī)生施雷伯提出在城市中建設(shè)家庭園藝花園的設(shè)想，這是普通市民、特別是低收入階層可以租賃的小塊花園，用以種植蔬菜和果樹、飼養(yǎng)家禽，來增加食物供給。后來，這些花園的功能更多的是讓奔波忙碌的市民放松身心、接觸自然，體會耕耘的樂趣和收獲的喜悅。這些成片的小花園也是城市中社區(qū)花園的一種類型，它們?yōu)槌鞘袔砹藵夂竦奶飯@氣息。19世紀(jì)末，英國社會學(xué)家霍華德提出的“田園城市”是一種兼具城市和鄉(xiāng)村優(yōu)點(diǎn)的城市設(shè)想，城市的四周被農(nóng)業(yè)用地所圍繞，其中有耕地、牧場、果園和森林，城市居民可以得到新鮮和充足的農(nóng)產(chǎn)品供應(yīng)。這些思想后來一直影響著歐洲的城市結(jié)構(gòu)和風(fēng)貌。在歐洲的許多城市中，自然景觀和鄉(xiāng)村景觀都被納入到城市的結(jié)構(gòu)之中，而家庭花園和社區(qū)花園則保留了許多實(shí)用性和生產(chǎn)性的特點(diǎn)，不少城市公園的景觀以體現(xiàn)田園風(fēng)光為主。許多城市在擁有現(xiàn)代化基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施和良好生活品質(zhì)的同時(shí)，仍然可以保持恬靜、輕松與安逸的田園氣息。

中國的城市原本就是在農(nóng)耕文化中產(chǎn)生的，城市與田園彼此容納、互相支撐。中國人對土地和自然的熱愛是一種延續(xù)千年的人文情懷，田園生活是人們的一種理想生活狀態(tài)。無論城市怎樣發(fā)展變化，在城市中留出足夠的具有田園氣息的空間，讓市民能夠感受自然、參與園藝和農(nóng)事活動，讓孩子們認(rèn)識自然、體會收獲的快樂，這不應(yīng)該只是一種暢想，而應(yīng)該成為現(xiàn)實(shí)。

2017年9月10日

Pastoral in the City

I remember it happened when I was studying at Tongji University, a notice posted on campus, notifying those teachers who did not kill the poultry within the allotted time, including Mr. Chen Congzhou. All the students laughed and speculated that Mr. Chen’s chickens should be used to observe and paint, or to hold a feast at home for a better reception once Leoh Ming Pei paid a visit.

Before the 1980s, keeping poultry is a common phenomenon in domestic families in China. Like in rural area, the fi rst sound the city dwellers heard usually was the loud crows cocks made every morning. The buildings in many cities was not yet in high density at that time and there were still large fi elds. My hometown Lanzhou is a linear city along the Yellow River. The connectives between the building clusters in the city were farmland, vegetable plots and fruit garden, feeding poultry was also popular in the neighborhood.Residents living in bungalows or the first floor of buildings will grow some vegetables and corn or grapes in the yard, make up for the food shortage and nutrition supplies. The whole city is just like a large village.

It is not dif fi cult to understand the city at the time. Fei Xiaotong described the city of China in 1940s in the book Chinese Gentry:“Land plots were usually reserved for planting in cities. Even in such big cities as Beijing and Nanjing, there were agricultural areas.These fields enclosed in the city could provide residents with the necessary vegetables and other hard-to-store products. From the conventional point of view, the ideal ‘city’ is a self-sufficient fortress.” Urban life requires continuous supply of agricultural products, which needed to be produced within or around the city especially when the storage technic and transportation were extremely underdeveloped. Coupled with the improper policies and low agricultural output, urban food supplies were too scarce to meet the daily food needs of urban residents. As a result,lands in the city were spontaneously developed to grow crops and vegetables or to raise poultry to supply food de fi ciencies and to improve living conditions. Some regions in the city, especially residential areas, were more or less like a large village, with a strong rural atmosphere at that time.

Today, there are extremely abundant supplies of agricultural products in cities from all over the country and even the world. The agricultural land near cities is no longer indispensable. With the rapid urbanization, these lands were then quickly transformed into new urban areas. The bungalows and low buildings with yards were replaced by densely-built high-rise constructions, and the interspace between buildings are dotted with beautiful parks and green spaces.The urban land lost the necessity of producing food, and the city lost its pastoral atmosphere. The lands in the city lose the necessary function of food production, along with its pastoral atmosphere.The children today in the city can no longer be awakened by a rooster crow in the morning, nor can they see crops and vegetables growing on urban land. China’s cities today have been far from the countryside and rural areas. The rural landscape 30 years ago exists only in some literary works, video records and memories of those who have lived in that era.

In contrast, some of the developed countries retain more complete pastoral scenery. Not only is the whole country full of magnificent pastoral sceneries, but also the city is rich in villatic atmosphere. In the 1990s, when I first went abroad, eagerly for an investigative study on modern European cities and landscape,surprised to find that many small and medium-sized European cities abound pastoral flavor. The plants and trees are mostly unadorned native species. Many family yards are decorated like farmhouse, also public spaces in urban are designed like a country field.

Actually, European cities have also gone through rapid transitions in the process of industrialization and urbanization.Many scholars put forward the strategies to improve the living environments directing at the urban land deteriorating and social structure imbalance on account of industrial expansion and population growth. In the middle of the 19th century, a German doctor, Daniel Gottlob Moritz Schreber, proposed an assumption of building domestic horticultural gardens in the city, small gardens that can be rented by citizens, especially low-income groups,used for vegetables and fruit trees cultivation, and raising poultry in order to increase food supply. Later, the main roles of these gardens acted as were to relax the rushing citizens, keep them close to the nature and enjoy cultivating and harvest. These small patches of gardens are also a type of the community garden in the city,which may bring about strong rural atmosphere.

“Garden City”, an urban assumption raised by England sociologist Howard at the end of 19th century is a combination of urban and rural advantages. Cities are surrounded by the farmland,including the cultivated land, pasture fi eld, orchard and forest. Thus city residents can be supplied with fresh and suf fi cient agricultural products. Since then, these ideas have long been influenced the urban structure and landscape in Europe. In many European cities,the natural landscape and rural landscape are integrated into the city structure, while family and community gardens retain many features of its practicability and productivity. City landscapes and parks are also mainly characterized by pastoral scenery. Large amount of cities,though equipped with modern infrastructure and high-quality urban life, can still maintain a quiet, easy and relaxed pastoral atmosphere.

Originally, cities in China stemmed from agricultural civilization,with urban and rural areas accepting and supporting each other.The love for the land and nature is an indigenous consciousness lasting for thousands of years in Chinese culture, and the pastoral life is an ideal image. No matter how the cities develop and change,enough space should be reserved for ruralized landscape in cities,in order to let citizens feel the nature, involve in horticultural and agricultural activities and give children access to know the nature and enjoy harvest. All should not be a fantasy but a reality.

Translator: WANG Xi-yue

Chief Editor: Prof. WANG Xiang-rong September 10th, 2017